Month: April 2025

Utah’s work in the transfer portal paid off again Monday with the addition of another guard.

This time, a commitment came from Western Kentucky’s Don McHenry — as reported by national outlets The Athletic and On3, and later confirmed by McHenry himself on social media.

A visitor at a nature park discovered human skeletal remains, Utah police reported.

The person reported the find at Lambert Park in Alpine to police at 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 25, the Lone Peak Police Department said in a news release.

A horseback rider discovered the remains, police told KSTU.

Officers confirmed the remains appear human and called in investigators from the medical examiner’s office, who began working to identify the remains and determine the cause of death.

Lambert Park is “largely undeveloped and used for biking, equestrian, and foot traffic,” police said.

Alpine is about a 30-mile drive southeast from Salt Lake City.

Micah Bernard didn’t hear his name called in the 2025 NFL Draft, but that didn’t stop the Tennessee Titans from giving him a chance. The former Utah Utes running back has signed as an undrafted free agent, hoping to prove he belongs at the next level.

Bernard put up solid numbers in college, rushing for 1,009 yards last season while averaging 5.1 yards per carry. Over his career with the Utes, he racked up nearly 3,000 rushing and receiving yards, showing his ability to make plays in multiple ways.

Now, he joins a Titans backfield that features Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears, both of whom bring speed and versatility. Bernard isn’t guaranteed a spot on the roster, but his skill set gives him a legitimate shot. He’s a smooth runner with solid hands, meaning he could carve out a role as a third-down option or even contribute on special teams.

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Tennessee’s offense, under coordinator Nick Holz, values backs who can move in space and pick up chunk plays, which fits Bernard’s style perfectly. His ability to catch passes and block in pass protection could give him an edge in training camp.

Making a team as an undrafted free agent isn’t easy, but plenty of players have gone that route and found success. Bernard’s job now is simple: to show up, work hard, and prove he belongs. If he does, the Titans might have just landed a hidden gem.

Related: Utah Running Back Micah Bernard Named a Team Captain

Utah has long been celebrated as a premier state for business ventures. However, the narrative often overlooks the pivotal role of women in driving this success. Their entrepreneurial spirit and leadership undeniably contribute to Utah’s economic dynamism and resilience. While progress has been made, a concerted effort is needed to address persistent disparities and fully unlock the potential of women in the state’s business sector.

Acknowledging strengths and addressing challenges

Despite Utah’s favorable business climate, it consistently ranks low in national studies regarding women’s equality, particularly in areas like income and representation in executive positions (e.g., WalletHub’s 2025 Best and Worst States for Women’s Equality and the USU Utah Women & Leadership Project’s 2021 Women’s Equality in Utah). This disparity underscores the need for targeted interventions to ensure equitable opportunities for women.

Conversely, Utah’s growth of women-owned businesses is a testament to the state’s evolving support structure. Data from the U.S. Small Business Administration reveals that women own over 44% of Utah’s small businesses. Notably, the state has witnessed a remarkable 77% surge in women-owned firms over the past two decades, a growth rate second only to Nevada. This significant increase highlights the state’s growing economic influence of female entrepreneurs.

Key resources and initiatives driving progress

Several Utah organizations are instrumental in fostering a supportive environment for women in business.

The Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity’s (GOEO) Startup State Initiative plays a crucial role by providing resources, mentorship and funding opportunities that address barriers disproportionately affecting women, such as access to capital and networking. Furthermore, the office’s 100 Utah Companies Championing Women initiative recognizes and encourages businesses to adopt policies that promote gender diversity and support women’s advancement, including family-friendly practices and programs designed to improve recruitment, retention and leadership opportunities. (The 100 Companies initiative is a partnership with USU’s Utah Women and Leadership Project and the Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs.)

The Women’s Business Center of Utah (WBCUtah) has achieved significant milestones, assisting in launching 292 new companies in 2024 alone, engaging with clients across a vast majority of Utah’s counties, and serving over 1,500 business owners. These efforts have created over 1,300 jobs and generated over $160 million in revenue statewide, demonstrating the tangible impact of targeted support. Last month, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced WBCUtah as one of its 2025 Women’s Business Center of Excellence award recipients.

Further contributing to this momentum is the Utah Women’s Leadership Institute’s (WLI) ElevateHER Challenge, which encourages organizations to increase the impact of women’s leadership. This initiative prompts companies to commit to measurable actions, such as increasing the number of women in senior leadership, improving retention rates, and addressing pay disparities. By fostering a culture that values and promotes women, the ElevateHER Challenge is critical in shifting Utah’s business landscape towards more significant gender equity.

Strategic recommendations for enhanced support

Drawing on insights from initiatives like 100 Companies Championing Women and research from the Utah Women and Leadership Project, the following strategies are crucial for fostering a more inclusive and supportive environment:

• Enhance access to capital. Implement funding programs and incentives specifically designed to bridge the venture capital gap for women entrepreneurs.
• Promote leadership diversity. Encourage companies to adopt policies that facilitate women’s advancement into executive roles, including mentorship programs and transparent promotion practices.
• Implement flexible work policies. Adopt flexible hours, remote work options and part-time professional roles to accommodate diverse employee needs and promote work-life balance.
• Provide family-friendly benefits. To support employees’ family responsibilities, offer paid family leave, childcare support, and adoption and fertility benefits.
• Establish women-focused initiatives. Develop mentoring programs, leadership development opportunities and employee resource groups specifically for women.

By implementing these strategies, Utah can solidify its position as a leader in fostering opportunity for all. The businesses and organizations championing gender equity today are laying the groundwork for a future where women are fully empowered to contribute to the state’s economic prosperity. When women receive the tools and opportunities to succeed, communities thrive, innovation accelerates and businesses grow, benefiting the entire state.

A stubborn and unthinking devotion to using fossil fuels to power Utah’s energy future can only lead to our state’s economy becoming as dry and dead as all those dinosaur bones.

The future is renewable energy. The technology is advancing. The costs are declining. Even oil-centric states such as Texas are loading up on the solar and wind infrastructure, as Utah — almost deliberately, it seems — is being left behind.

Legislative interference in plans by private industry and energy-producing co-ops, pushing back on moves to renewable energy and clinging to dirty and ever-more-expensive coal, have hobbled what should be Utah’s opportunity to lead the way on moving to clean and abundant energy.

There is reason to be hopeful that innovation and market forces have already begun an inexorable march toward renewables such as wind, solar, geothermal and new nuclear technology, supported by ever-more-efficient batteries and other forms of energy storage.

The share of Utah’s energy that comes from coal has already plummeted from 75% in 2015 to 46% in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Administration. Of all the energy capacity added in our state since 2015, 93% of it is from solar.

Nationally, coal is already down to 15% of our power production, while solar and wind together outpaced coal in 2024, for the first time ever, at 17%.

Advocates at Utah Clean Energy figure that from 2007 to 2023, sustainable energy growth in the state brought $4.1 billion in construction and investment, $24.6 million in property tax revenue and $6.3 million in lease payments to farmers and other landowners.

Much of the short-term promise going forward comes from the grants, tax breaks and requirements that were part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. That’s an act of Congress that might better have been called the Increasing Energy Act, given how much of that bill’s focus was on clean and sustainable energy projects.

The Trump administration, eager to reduce spending on useful things so it can cut taxes for the rich, is threatening to end IRA funding. That would be a bad idea, and Utah’s all-Republican congressional delegation should oppose such backward steps.

Calculations from groups including the Energy Innovation think tank in California to the Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy at the University of Utah show that IRA incentives to new renewable energy projects stand to boost Utah’s gross domestic product significantly over the next decade.

Those numbers also show that removing IRA grants and incentives threaten to cost the state jobs even as it increases our energy costs. Or, perhaps more properly, cost the state jobs because it increases our energy costs.

The case for Utah’s move to sustainable energy is so strong that it isn’t necessary to raise the specter of, you should excuse the expression, climate change. The plummeting cost of solar energy infrastructure and the market’s overall move away from coal — far beyond Utah’s poor power to add or detract — are reason enough.

Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

Three years ago, Keilani Ngatuvai sat in her car outside what was then known as Vivint Arena, called her mom and cried for 10 minutes.

The then-senior at Bingham High School in South Jordan, Utah, had just learned her college education would be completely paid for, thanks to Utah Jazz owners Ryan and Ashley Smith.

Ngatuvai had applied for the Utah Jazz Scholarship program and then been invited to the arena for a final interview earlier that day.

After a tour, Ngatuvai and the other finalists sat in the Jazz locker room, where they were told they’d been awarded the scholarship.

“I probably had the least satisfied reaction of anyone else in that room because I just sat there. I was so shocked. It took me a second to process that, and so I was just kind of sitting in the room like, ‘Did that actually happen?’” Ngatuvai said.

The emotions would come later when she was on the phone with her mom.

“I was so, so grateful, and I never in a million years thought that would happen,” she said.

Fast forward three years, Ngatuvai is double majoring in marketing and strategic communications at Southern Utah University and leaving for a study abroad trip to Sicily on Sunday.

“Honestly, I have no words, and I could never have enough words to express how big of a gift this was in my life. It has 100% changed the trajectory that I had pictured for myself,” Ngatuvai said of the scholarship.

114 wins, 114 scholarships

In March 2021, shortly after purchasing the Utah Jazz, Ryan and Ashley Smith announced the Utah Jazz scholarship program.

For every Jazz win in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, they awarded a Utah high school student from an underrepresented group with a four-year scholarship to a Utah university.

The scholarship covers the cost of tuition, fees, books, supplies, and room and board, and it’s “the biggest scholarship in the state,” according to Mike Maughan, an executive with Smith Entertainment Group and president of the SEG Foundation.

Maughan said the Smiths view their team leadership as a form of stewardship. They’ve regularly considered how to “invest in and ensure a very strong community element to everything that they were doing,” he said.

The Utah Jazz Scholarship program was their first way of doing that.

“They’ve always believed deeply in the power of education and the importance of education, and the ability of education to help people kind of advance in their lives and careers and do something really impactful and meaningful,” Maughan said of the Smiths. “They wanted to make sure they could find a way to invest in this rising group of high school graduates in the state of Utah.”

The program has awarded 114 privately funded scholarships to Utah students, all of whom demonstrated financial need. Among the recipients, 87% are first-generation college students.

With their scholarships, 114 scholars have been able to pursue degrees in various fields, including finance, law, education and medicine.

Two of the program’s scholars have already graduated, and another 15 are set to do so this year.

Maughan said the feedback SEG hears the most from scholars is that the scholarship “has fundamentally changed their lives.”

“Sometimes in life, we just need someone to say, ‘I believe in you,’ and that’s enough to help us start to believe in ourselves, maybe in a way that we didn’t even do that before,” he said. “These are really incredible kids who have bright futures, and no one needs to give them permission to be great. They already are. Sometimes it’s just removing a few of the barriers that might have been in the way to allow them to kind of achieve the potential that they have.”

In October, the scholarships were integrated into the newly formed SEG Foundation.

Caroline Klein, SEG’s chief communications officer, said Ryan and Ashley Smith’s goals for the foundation go hand-in-hand with the scholarship program.

“It’s really using the platform to do good, and, as Mike (Maughan) said, create a lasting impact, very focused on a growth-oriented mindset … and then engaging with the youth, because, again, they’re our future and can make a lasting difference. So all of that really plays very well into exactly what the Utah Jazz Scholarship Foundation is and does. It’s incredible to wrap that all into one,” Klein said.

Mentoring the next generation

The scholarship does more than cover the financial burden of college. It provides the scholars with mentorship from the entire SEG organization.

Ngatuvai recalled sitting alone at a Jazz scholars event in September 2022. She was debating whether she should leave when Klein sat down and introduced herself.

Unaware of Klein’s job, Ngatuvai lamented that she was torn between majoring in marketing or communication, “but I told her I was leaning towards marketing because I just didn’t see a lot of benefit with communications,” Ngatuvai said.

Klein told her, “If you are passionate about communications, communications is a skill that is transferable across anything that you do.”

The next time they saw each other, Ngatuvai told Klein she was double-majoring in the two and loving her communication classes.

The mentorship goes both ways, Klein said, describing the spark the scholars provide in her life.

“I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my time than mentoring the next generation of leaders, especially ones like the Utah Jazz scholars, who are so passionate, so motivated, so engaging and so willing to soak everything up that they have,” Klein said.

In addition to mentorship, SEG helps every interested scholar, regardless of their field, land an internship each year. Many of those internships are with the Jazz’s partner organizations.

“We have them interning in everything from the medical field to marketing to real estate to architecture to civil engineering, and a lot of those work out pretty easily,” Maughan said.

For the harder to place internships, Utah businesses step up to help.

“I make a call to a couple of CEOs and say, ‘Hey, we need to place someone doing this or that,’ and people immediately say, ‘We’re in. How can we help?’” Maughan said.

Changing lives and relieving financial burdens

Daniel Nguyen, the son of refugees, first learned about the Utah Jazz Scholarship while watching a Jazz game.

A few months later, he found out he was a Utah Jazz scholar.

“I think my mom and dad were really relieved because I remember talking to them about college, and they said that wherever I choose to go for (college), they are willing to work a little bit more to help pay for college. But then, I didn’t want that for them,” he said.

The scholarship meant Nguyen, a first-generation college student, could dive headfirst into the opportunities available through the University of Utah without the burden of having to work his way through school.

Nguyen has done that and more. In addition to majoring in biology and pre-med, he is minoring in human rights and resources, chemistry, and Spanish.

He has also been heavily involved in extracurriculars. Nguyen has been a part of at least 10 clubs and served as a campus ambassador, a Union programming council freshman ambassador and study abroad ambassador.

He’s currently a residential adviser for the Honors College and teaches roughly 60 students in the university’s first-generation scholars program. He also does cancer research at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

“All these opportunities, I feel like I wouldn’t have been able to do without that scholarship because I would been so focused on working instead,” he said.

Last fall, Nguyen was named homecoming king. Standing on the field of Rice-Eccles Stadium in front of thousands of people, he reflected on the opportunities he’s been given through the scholarship and the example he’s set for other students.

He thought, “Without the Utah Jazz, I wouldn’t be standing here today representing all the first-generation students, representing all the students who had little when growing up, but chose to pursue more and to ask for resources and to ask for help. I feel like it was really cool just to stand there and be like, ‘Wow, if I can do it, then I can inspire a lot of different students to do it too.’”

The first thing Tavan Russell did after learning he was a Utah Jazz scholarship recipient was hug his mom.

“It was an amazing thing and really heartwarming to just see my mom, kind of like break down, and with her being a single mother, it was very nice to see all of her hard work just get paid off,” he said. “I think as any child of a single mother, you’d love to just see, you know, paying it back forward to your mom for everything that she’s done. So, that was a really heartwarming moment for me, and definitely a moment I won’t ever forget.”

Paying for her three children’s education was a “really big worry” for his mom as she strived to provide her children with opportunities, he said.

Russell realized that his scholarship is a way he can reward his mother for her sacrifices. He has used that as motivation to make the most of what he’s been given.

“You better go out there every day of the year during the school year and just put in everything you have, everything you got. There’s no excuse. There’s no obstacle that should stop you, and you should just keep on going. Because those two things right there, those are just enough reasons to put your head down and just keep on grinding,” he said.

Russell, from North Salt Lake, is now a student at the University of Utah, studying pre-dental. He plans on applying to dental school this summer.

He said he’s benefitted from the mentorship the scholarship has provided, especially through conversations with Maughan and Ryan Smith.

“Whenever we have these little meetings and I talk to them one on one, they really open my eyes to some kind of new life lesson that I can apply at the time,” he said. “Two of the best people I’ve ever talked to, like mentors I ever met are just right there, anytime, anywhere, and it’s been a blessing to have them be right there.”

Russell expressed his gratitude for the scholarship and the difference it has made in his life.

“I truly, really don’t know where I’d be without them, and I’m just super blessed to be able to pursue my career and dreams because of them,” he said.

While credit might be given to SEG for changing these students’ lives, Maughan believes it’s more accurate that the credit be given to the students “who are committed to changing their own lives, changing their own future, taking advantage of this opportunity, of the amazing place that Utah is to really go live out their dreams.”

A person on horseback found what appeared to be human bones in a park in Utah County on Friday night.

In an announcement Saturday, the Lone Peak Police Department said it responded to a report of suspected human remains on the east side of Lambert Park. The park, in Alpine, is an area that’s “largely undeveloped and used for biking, equestrian, and foot traffic,” the department said.

Police cordoned off the scene and kept it secure until Saturday, when investigators from Lone Peak and the state Office of the Medical Examiner went out and processed the scene.

The individual’s identity and the circumstances surrounding their death are not yet known. The remains have been turned over to the medical examiner’s office for further investigation and identification.

For more on the story, visit https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/northern-utah/human-skeletal-remains-found-in-utah-county-nature-park

Four catches for four touchdowns in his only season playing football at the collegiate level has turned into an NFL shot for Utah tight end Caleb Lohner.

The Denver Broncos, who have taken a liking to adding former Utes to their team in recent years, took a chance on the former BYU and Baylor basketball player turned football tight end, drafting him with the No. 241 pick in the NFL draft Saturday.

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Lohner’s selection marks the fourth consecutive year that a Utah player was selected in the draft, a streak that started in 2022 when the Jacksonville Jaguars picked linebacker Devin Lloyd in the first round.

Last fall, Lohner tried his luck on the gridiron, and it all started from a conversation with Ute tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham, who has known the Lohner family for quite a while.

After finishing the basketball season at Baylor, where he settled into a bench role and averaged 2.4 points and 2.3 rebounds in his last season in Waco, Lohner entered the transfer portal — but it wasn’t just basketball he was looking to play.

Despite the fact that he hadn’t played organized football since eighth grade — deciding after that to completely focus on basketball — Whittingham was interested in converting the hoops forward to a tight end.

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“Caleb is a guy that has all the traits that you look for in a tight end,” Whittingham said last fall. “He’s tall, he’s 250 pounds now, he can run, he’s got good hands and I would say from when he arrived in May through all of the summer work that was done, he’d get a grade of an ‘A’ for everything that he was able to do in summer ball.”

It was a tough process — essentially, Lohner was relearning the sport — but the potential was there from an athletic standpoint. Once he began learning everything he needed to about football, the results started showing themselves in practice, and it started translating in-game.

All four of his receptions were touchdowns, with the 6-foot-7, 250-pounder providing a big target for Utah’s quarterbacks in the red zone and coming down with jump balls in the end zone.

He also blocked a kick on special teams.

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After finishing the football season, Lohner also played basketball for Utah, averaging 2.8 points and 2 rebounds while playing 9.9 minutes per game.

The combination of Lohner’s size, frame and athleticism proved to be enough for the Broncos to want to nab him near the end of the draft before he reached the undrafted free agent market.

Lohner played just 57 snaps the entire year and was targeted just nine times, but he made every single snap count en route to getting his shot at the next level.

“I just had some people at the University of Utah that just believed that I could be a high-level tight end, and so I took the time to watch some film and take a visit there after I had graduated from Baylor, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” Lohner said, per the Broncos website.

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“I couldn’t be more grateful for all the schools that I was at, but especially University of Utah, their football program, the Whittinghams — coach Kyle (Whittingham) and Freddie Whittingham.”

Broncos coach Sean Payton has loved to use unconventional players before — see Taysom Hill — and will love the idea of scheming up different ways to use Lohner, if Lohner impresses enough in camp to make the final roster.

“I couldn’t have been happier,” Lohner said, per the Broncos website.

“I just wanted an opportunity, and I genuinely believe that wherever I am — and now being part of the Broncos organization — I’m going to do everything I can to help win. I know I don’t have a ton of football under my belt, but that’s exactly why I’m playing the game, because I’ve developed a passion and love. I was so excited. I think it’s something you dream about in sports.”

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Lohner will join five former Utes in the Mile High City — offensive tackle Garett Bolles, outside linebacker Jonah Elliss, wide receiver Devaughn Vele and fellow tight end Thomas Yassmin.

Linebacker Karene Reid, Lohner’s teammate in his sole season as a Ute, will be with him as well, as the Broncos reportedly signed Reid to an undrafted free agent contract shortly following the draft.